Hide-carrying horse and truck



Feb. 9 1926. 1,572,260

w. c. WREGHT ET AL HIDE CARRYING HORSE AND' TRUCK Filed April 16, 1924 2Sheets-Sheet 1 Feb. 9

1,572,260 W. C. WRIGHT ET AL HIDE CARRYING HORSE AND TRUCK Filed April16, "1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 w/ 177 veiii'arv' QM 1 aw I by W I w wr qaPatented Feb. 9, 192% UNITED STATES PATENT orrlcs.

WALLACE G. WRIGHT, OF BROOKFIELD, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND DANA E. HARDING,

OF ARLINGTON, LEASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNORS TO HARDING ENGINEERING COM-IPANY, OF EAST BOSTON, MAS$AOHUSETTS,'A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTSHIDE-CARRYING HORSE AND TRUCK.

Application filed. April 16, 1924. Serial No. 706,838.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, WALLACE C. \VRIGHT and DANA E. I'IARDING, citizensof the United States, and residents, respectively, of Brookfield, in thecounty of Carroll and State of New Hampshire, and Arlington, in thecounty of Middlesex and State of Massachuetts, have invented anImprovement in Hide-Canying Horses and Trucks, of which the followingdescription, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is aspecification, like reference characters on the drawings representinglike parts.

Our present invention relates to leather handling devices, and moreparticularly to a portable hide carrying horse or truck suitable forholding and conveying skins and leather and to cooperate with hidefeeding machines to StYG manual handling of the hides.

In the process of tanning, viz, manufacturing leather from hides, eachhide passes through a plurality of operations, necessitating thecontinual carrying or transporting of eachhide from place. to placethroughout the tannery. The hides are advantageously placed in piles orbundles and usually are hung upon rough wooden horses adapted to supportand carry a mass of hides, hung over the horse and on top of each other.The horse is then dragged about the tannery to the succeeding places ofoperating, the hides are taken one at a time by hand from the pile andtreated or put through a machine. As the process of manufacture nearscompletion and the hide is converted into leather, it becomes more andmore difficult to handle the same, particularly in piled relation andfrequently the entire pile or portions thereof slip from the horse,necessitating considerable unnecessary handling. Also, the horses then1-selves, as heretofore employed, are of such shape and size that thehorses, together with the pile of hides thereon, are top heavy and suchhorses are prone to overturn with their load, The shape of present typeof horses is such that it is absolutely necessary to remove the hides orskins therefrom in or: der that the same may be fed to a machine andthis item itself is a source of great labor and expense in tann-eries.As the tanning industry is at present conducted, it has been necessaryto remove hides or skins from horses and pile them in operative positionon the work support or table of each hide feeding machine, the operationof piling being also a laborious hand operation.

Our present invention obviates the necessity of taking hides or shinsfrom a pile on a horse by hand labor and placing the same on a tableassociated with, or forming part of the hide feeding machine. Incarrying out our present invention we constructa portable and combinedhorse, truck, and work support or table; thus skins or hides may bepiled directly onto our improved horse, or may be fed from a machineinto piled relation onto the table or horse; thence transporting thehorse or table as a platform to which the succeeding iachine, such as ahide feeding machine, may feed the hides directly from the horse ortable and through said succeeding machine.

In the preferred form of this invention, we have devised a wheeled frameprovided with a foldabletopconstructed with a fixed center portionhaving hinged flaps on either side thereof, such hinged flaps, whenbrought into the horizontal position, constituting a. practicallyhorizontal sup port or table, adapted to cooperate directly with thefeedingmachine itself, thus eliminating handling by hand. These flapscan be folded down for saving space, permit drawing of the hides, and'tofacilitate transportation or trucking through narrow spaces andpassageways.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the preferred embodiment ofour invention,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation;

2 is an end elevation;

Fig. 8 is an enlarged end elevation of a portion of either Fig. 1 or 2withthe wings or traps in extended position;

Fig. l is an enlarged sectional detail on the line 4- 1 of Fig. l; and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail plan view on the line 5 5 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, 10 designates side members spaced apart andtied together at their ends by cross members 11, braces 12 beingemployed to stiffen the frame composed of the members 10 and 11. Securedto the side members 10 and extending upwardly and inwardly therefrom arestandards 13 of any suitable size and number,

members 15 brace the entire structure thus far described. At variouspoints along the under face of the platform 16 are secured by screws 19hinges 20, the number of such hinges being any that may be desired.Secured to the hinges 20 and on each side of the platform 16' are leavesor wings composed of a brace 21 of a length equal to the' length of theplatform 16 of any suitable or desired width. The leaves or wings 21 arereenforced by cross members 22 screwed to the under face thereof byscrews 23 and in our preferred construction we make the number of crossbraces equal to the number of hinges 20 employed. The leaves or wings 21are secured to the strap hinges 20 by rivets 24. Adjacent each end ofeach of the leaves 21 and adjacent the outside edge thereof arepivotally attached one end of a strap 25, the other end of this strapbeing pivotally attached to one end ofa strap 26. The end of the strap25 adjacent to the strap 26 is provided with a portion 27 which engageswith one edge of the strap 26 to prevent a too far swinging movement ofthe straps 25 and 26 about their pivotal connection. The end of thestrap 26 remote from the pivotal connection thereof with the strap 25 isprovided with a hook 28 which is bored to engage with any one of aplurality of projecting pins 29 on the end of the members 13. In normalor loading position, the

leaves or wings 21 are in the position shown to the right of Fig. 2 andwith the straps 25 and 26 folded within the area defined by the members13. When in this position, a plurality of hides or skins 30'may beloaded onto the platform 16 and the sides of the hides or skins 30 willhang downwardly. lVhen it is desired to utilizethe horse as a table, theleaves or wings 21 are swung upwardly into the position shown in Figs. 2and 3 with the straps 25 and 26 in the-position shown to the left ofFig. 2 and the height of the outer ends of the leaves or wings 21 isdetermined by the particular pin 29 that the hook 28 on the strap 26 isin engagement with.

Secured tothe under side of the longitu dinal members 10 and extendingtransverse- 1y of the horse is anaxle 31 on the outer ends of which are.rotatably mounted the flat faced wheels 32. Secured to the under faceof the cross members lland substantially centrally with regard to thelength thereof are swivel castors 33, and by reference to Fig. 1 it willbe seen that the horse, when the members 10 and platform 16 are inhorizontal position, rests entirely on the wheels 32 with the swivelcastors 33 out of engagement with the floor or ground. Due tooverbalancing of the structure or to the load thereon the horse will, ofcourse, not rest in this balanced position and either one or the otherof the swivel castors 33 will engage with the floor or ground but,because of the fact that the castors 33 are swivelled, the entire horseis easily turned or steered, thus obviating the disadvantage of priorstructures where all the wheels supporting the horse were fixed withrespect to the frame and turning thereof was extremely diflicult. .Onthe under face of the platform 16 and at each end thereof are securedhandholds 34 and by means of which the horse may be grasped and eitherpulled or pushed along the floor or ground.

From the above'description it will be obvious that our improved horseand table is rigid in construction,,and perfectly dirigi ble, thatmaterial such as skins or hides 30 may be piled thereon when the leavesor wings 21 are in the position shown in Fig. 2 or in Fig. 3 and that,when in Fig. 1, the horse may be moved to any part of the works with thematerial thereon and the wings 21 moved into the position shown in Fig.3 when the horsebecomes practically a worktable and may be associatedwith a machine. Further, the horse, when oper" ated as a table, may beutilized as a receiving table and the work, when fed through a machine,may be received on the horse with the leaves or wings in the positionshown in Fig. 3 and after a considerable number have been placedthereon, the wings or leaves 21 may be moved into the position shown inFig. 1 and the horse moved to any portion of the works. Our improvedhorse, therefore, is adapted as a horse or as a worktable from whichwork may be fed or as a table on which work maybe received.

lVhile we have necessarily shown and described the preferred embodimentof our invention somewhat in detail, it is to be understood that we mayvary the size, shape, and arrangement of parts within wide limitswithout departing from the spirit of the invention. 7

Our invention is further described and defined-in the form of claim asfollows:

In a combined portable horse and worktable, the combination with arectangular frame, an axle secured to the under side thereof, centrallylocated with respect thereto, and extending transversely of the frame,wheels rotatably mounted on said axle, swivel castors centrally mountedon said frame and secured to the end thereof and normally out ofengagement with the floor or ground when the frame is in horizontalposition, upwardly extending supports secured to the top of said frame,a horizontal table secured to the upper ends of said supports andextending longitudinally of said frame, leaves less in thickness thanthe table hingedly secured to the sides of said table and With the topsurfaces thereof lying below the top surface of the table, When the sameare in horizontal position, and means for adjustably holding the leavesin any de- 10 sired angular position relative to the table.

In testimonywhereof, We have signed our names to this specification.

WALLACE o. WRIGHT. DANA E. HARDING.

